Articles and musings from living a Taiji and Qigong life for over 30 years
(www.dragonspringtaiji.co.uk)

Monday, 16 November 2015

Repetition

Any
physical movement will improve over time with repetition. Remember
learning to tie your shoes laces? All it took was repetition, but
very few people (if any) use shoe lace tying as a practice for
understanding themselves at a deeper level, because it's done
unconsciously and probably learnt when you were very young. Even so,
you are now likely to be an expert at shoe lace tying!

To
learn a Taiji Form of any kind (empty hand, duo, or weapon), requires
a commitment to regularly practise the same movements repeatedly.
This needs a certain amount of intention and discipline. As a
beginner, having another new posture to add to the sequence each week
keeps the learning process fresh: it's not the same as it was last
week; the new posture may shed some light on what has gone before
revealing a principle you hadn't quite understood up to that point.
As each week goes by your practice will take a little longer giving
more time to drop into the receptive space of the Form. As well as
repeating what's gone before, this pattern of adding something new
each week is a repetition in itself.

But
what happens once the sequence is completed... Any physical movement
will improve over time with repetition. Remember learning to tie your
shoes laces? All it took was repetition, but very few people (if any)
use shoe lace tying as a practice for understanding themselves at a
deeper level, because it's done unconsciously and probably learnt
when you were very young. Even so, you are now likely to be an expert
at shoe lace tying!

To
learn a Taiji Form of any kind (empty hand, duo, or weapon), requires
a commitment to regularly practise the same movements repeatedly.
This needs a certain amount of intention and discipline. As a
beginner, having another new posture to add to the sequence each week
keeps the learning process fresh: it's not the same as it was last
week; the new posture may shed some light on what has gone before
revealing a principle you hadn't quite understood up to that point.
As each week goes by your practice will take a little longer giving
more time to drop into the receptive space of the Form. As well as
repeating what's gone before, this pattern of adding something new
each week is a repetition in itself.

But
what happens once the sequence is completed... there's no new posture
to keep it fresh. While it's 'new', the enjoyment of playing a Taiji
Form, or Qigong Set, for its own sake may last a few months, or even
a few years, but going through the same sequence of movements every
day would soon become boring and tedious unless a deeper meaning or
purpose can be found, beyond just physical movement.

A
common experience amongst many Taiji players is that we had to be
willing to repeat the Form over and over again, day in, day out,
simply to get beyond the place where we wanted to 'get it'; to be in
control of it on our terms; to grasp the art and make it ours,
without having to make any fundamental changes in ourselves. In other
words, as beginners, most people want to shape Taiji to fit them, but
through repetition and a willingness to consciously soften what is in
the way, we are gradually, subtly, reshaped to fit ourselves into
'it', then Taiji begins to reveal itself. Feeling is the only sure
way forward. Yes, you have to begin with copying your teacher and
other students, and think
about what you're
doing, but until you can feelwhat your body is doing
progress will be limited.

Discovering
a deeper meaning refines repetition into developing higher levels of
skill.Feeling
for the underlying principles, the inner aspects, through the same
outer sequence, refines the connections within the body, and between
the body and mind, enhancing the quality of the practice and the
resulting effects that show in the understanding of yourself.

What
about repeating mistakes?Again,
Feelingis key. As you take a step, you
can think about stepping Shoulder Width as much as you like, but it
won't it happen with any clarity or consistency until you can feel
that you're actually taking a Shoulder Width Step. Applying this
sensory perception to each part of the body and each aspect of a
movement allows self-correcting to become a natural part of the
practice. Then, more repetition leads to more refinement which leads
to more skill.

Once
you reach this place in your practice you'll become more calm, more
'still' in the face of conflict, thereby more able to act quickly
when needed. Less often caught by the 'fight or flight' response in
any given situation, you have the ability to appropriately either use
action or stillness as both qualities are present within your Taiji
Form, and therefore available in daily life.

In
life there appears to be certain lessons that each of us is meant to
learn in order to grow into the full potential of our personality, to
take us closer to living our wholeness. There may be very different
lessons for each person, but I have noticed they tend to start small
and very quietly. If we deal with them there and then, we have learnt
the lesson, redressed that particular weakness, realigned that
imbalance. If we ignore or side step them, they come around again in
a different guise but slightly larger and a little louder. They keep
coming around and growing until we can no longer ignore them but have
to stand up and deal with them. This is another form of repetition
and it can be very uncomfortable, but only because we've let it get
out of proportion.

Through
the conscious practice of repetition the mind recognises patterns of
sensation and becomes more sensitive to the subtle changes and
differences we experience each time we play a Form. Through training
the mind, awareness and intention in this way, it is inevitable that
we become more conscious of repetitive patterns of unhelpful
behaviour in ourselves, and from here are more able to act upon them
for our betterment as we move slowly but surely along the path of
Taiji.

Alec began his training in Taiji and Qigong in Bristol in 1981 with Rising Dragon Tai Chi School, eventually becoming a senior instructor within that school, before founding Dragon Spring Taiji & Qigong School at the start of 2010.
Alec has been teaching since 1984, running regular weekly Taiji and Qigong classes in Birmingham since 1986, and also teaches in Ludlow, Shropshire.
Alec is registered as a senior teacher with the Tai Chi Union for Great Britain and continues to develop his study and practise of Taiji and Qigong with teachers from around the world.